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Looking for a Monarch Money alternative

By , who built Keep the Diff

Monarch is where a lot of people landed after Mint closed, and it earned that. It is polished, it is actively developed, and it does a great deal: budgets, recurring bills, net worth, investments, goals, and a shared view so two people can look at the same household money under separate logins.

All of that rests on one design decision. Monarch works by connecting your accounts through data aggregators and reading the transactions, so the dashboard is only as full as the connections behind it. People look for something else for three different reasons, and each one points somewhere different.

Reason one: the bank connection

Monarch links institutions through third party providers such as Plaid, MX and Mastercard's data service. That is how it can show everything in one place, and it means a company you did not choose holds ongoing read access to your financial history.

If this is you, no amount of polish changes the trade, because the connection is how the product works rather than a setting you can turn off. The options that avoid it entirely, and what each gives up, are laid out in budget apps that don't connect to your bank.

Reason two: the price

Monarch is a paid subscription with only a short free trial. For a household tracking investments, property and several accounts, that is reasonable value.

If this is you, be honest about what you actually used. If it was the budget, a free spreadsheet does that job. If it was the net worth view, most banks and brokerages now show you the pieces, and adding them up once a month by hand takes a few minutes.

Reason three: it is more than you needed

A complete financial dashboard is also a complete thing to keep tidy. Transactions want reviewing and categorizing, rules want adjusting, and aggregator connections occasionally need signing into again, which is true of every app built this way. For someone managing a lot of money in a lot of places, that work pays for itself.

If this is you, and what you really wanted was to feel like you were saving more rather than to audit everything, a smaller tool that asks less of you will get used for longer.

What Keep the Diff is, and what it is not

It is not a Monarch replacement. It does one much narrower job, and it is only the right answer if reason three sounds familiar.

Monarch reads what you spent. Keep the Diff records what you decided not to spend: at the moment you choose the cheaper option or skip the purchase, you log what you were ready to spend and what you actually spent. The difference is money you kept, and it adds up by week, by month and toward a goal.

Because the input is two numbers you type, there is nothing to connect. There is no bank integration, no account and no sign in, and sync between your own devices is end to end encrypted, so nobody but you can read what you logged.

The honest comparison

  • Monarch shows your whole financial picture. Keep the Diff shows one number, and it cannot tell you your net worth, your investments or where your money went.
  • Monarch is built for two people sharing a household. Keep the Diff is one person's record. If you are saving as a couple, the approach in a no spend challenge with a partner works without anybody sharing an app.
  • Monarch needs your accounts connected. Keep the Diff never sees a single transaction, so there is nothing to reconnect and nothing to reconcile.
  • Monarch is a subscription. Logging in Keep the Diff is free forever, with no ads and no limit. Premium adds history, export, categories and goals.

If the dashboard became one more thing to maintain, that trade is probably worth making. You can try it in your browser without installing anything, or read how to save money without a budget for the method on its own.

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